Lamb is one of the well known Christian symbols of Easter to represent the sacrifice made by Jesus. Spring flowers, chicks, rabbits and baby lambs and of course eggs are also a symbol of the rebirth of nature after the winter months.
One delicious Easter dish is the fragrant and creamy lamb soup fused with tarragon, cooked with colourful vegetables and served with a twist of lemon. Best prepared with cuts that marbled with fatty tissue to have that tender slow cooked melt in the mouth delicious flavoursome meat.
Ingredients:
- 400 grams [~1lb] of lamb neck fillet, or other stewing parts, like shoulder, cut up into small bitesize cubes
- tablespoon of fat or a good splash of sunflower oil for browning the meat
- 1 medium onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 medium carrots
- 2 medium parsnip
- 1 medium potato diced
- 1/2 cup of peas fresh or frozen
- 3-4 few spring of fresh tarragon, leaves removed from stem and chopped – or 1 level spoonful of dried tarragon
- 150ml of soured cream
- 100ml of fresh cream
- 2 l of water
- 2 dried bay leaves
- salt, pepper
How to make
- Quickly seal and brown the lamb meat on hot fat or sunflower oil
- Add the finely copped onion and clove of garlic, sauté until the onion begins to turn translucent
- Cover with water, season with salt and pepper drop in bay leaves and cook on a low heat until the meat is tender. I used neck fillet which took 2.5 hours of slow cooking.
- When the meat is almost ready add the chopped vegetables and peas.
- Mix the sour cream with the flour mix till smooth, ladle in a bit of hot liquid from the soup and stir repeat till it gets to an easy to pour consistency and add to the soup. Stir vigorously till the soup is slightly thickened by the flour, our in the plain cream and add the tarragon, bring to boil point then remove from heat
- Serve with crusty bread and a squirt of fresh lemon juice
Hello I’d like to try this for Easter this year but I’m wondering if it can be made in a slow cooker?
Thank you
Hello Gabrielle, The lamb could be cooked in a slow cooker well with some onion, garlic, salt, some herbs. Once it is done I would finish the soup with the vegetables, potato and finally the bit of sour cream, lemon separately.